Tuesday, 8 April 2014

The Great Escape!

Robberies, so far have been a thing only in books or in movies for me…..but to feature as a protagonist in such an incident, trust me you’ve got to have balls….may be made of iron or something……

It’s half past two in the morning. I got off a private bus heading towards Delhi from Salasar (Lord Hanuman’s Temple). My campus is one and a half kms from the halt. Our University is generous enough to provide cabs for students visiting/returning from long trips, but this simply wasn't my day. Thanks to the ongoing book fest at Jaipur, all cabs had already been booked for travel to the fest by the dogma hungry students of our college.

I looked at the desolated lane. Scary thoughts about the gang that held passers by in the night flashed past my mind. Since. I was returning from a holy place, I somehow, gathered the strength to begin my walk towards the campus with a hint of courage within me. Something was telling me that nothing bad was going to happen notwithstanding the horrific tales I had heard about the operations of this notorious gang.

I had walked just a few yards and the inevitable happened. I heard a bike nearing me from behind. Even before I could turn around to look, I felt a rock solid palm hold my shirt collar from the rear. The man on bike, fully clad in a quilt appeared like a typical baddie from a low budget Bollywood film. I froze completely with my heart quivering like a trapped chicken and beating at a pace faster than the F1 cars.

Shiver ran through me as he spoke with a heavy voice. As he spoke, he scanned through me from top to bottom. Girls should, perhaps, learn a lesson from my episode. It's sometimes beneficial not to put on too many valuables. I just had a golden finger ring and Rado watch that could qualify as valuables. Thanks to my winter clothing, my gloves covered the ring and the full sleeved sweater covered the watch.

"Kaha se aariyo hai?" he asked

"Salasar Mandir." I said, hoping that the mention of Mandir would change his mind of robbing me.

He got off the bike and started moving around me slowly. I wondered if I should declare all my assets even before he asked for them.

"Paise kitne hai?" he asked. Mr. do-little looked in a hurry with no interest in my ornaments or mobile phones and wanted only cash.

I thought if I should invent stories to tell him how I had run out of cash and that I had nothing left........but even before I could think, my hand reached my wallet and within a blink it shifted hands and was now in his hands. As he emptied all of the cash in it, we saw another man approaching us. I saw him and couldn't believe it. He screamed at us and our Shakti Kapoor dropped my wallet, got on his bike and drove in the opposite direction. Tingles of relief ran down my spine. Krishna had come to save Draupadi or should I say Hanuman had come to save Sita as I was returning from Salasar.

What followed after that was rather more expected. The man accompanied me till the campus gate and warned me of undertaking such dangerous stints.

I deserve to be punished (for whatever I'm doing) and am thankful to God that this has so far been the worst form of punishment I have served.